MATATABI PRESS - Black Fox Review

About Black Fox Review

Launched in Summer 2026, Black Fox Review publishes gothic fiction twice a year. Each issue is a collection of stories that honour the tradition of the gothic while pushing it towards new, strange territories. We are particularly interested in the spaces between: between fact and fiction, between the living and the dead, between the promise and its keeping.

Black Fox Review is published by Matatabi Press, an officially registered Japanese publishing house (Japan Publisher Registration No. 910554). The journal is distributed globally and available as EPUB and print editions at Barnes & Noble (US), Waterstones (UK), Kinokuniya (Asia), Ernster (Luxembourg), Bokus (Sweden), Bol (Netherlands), Indigo Chapters (Canada), Thriftbooks, AbeBooks, Amazon (Worldwide), Goodreads, The NILE (academic), and independent bookshops worldwide. Black Fox Society offers an annual membership for readers who want to support the work and receive each issue as it appears, plus exclusive access to our narratological guides.

✦ SUBSCRIBE

Join The Black Fox Society for $7 /year (¥1,000)

Two interactive PDF issues · Free submissions · Three-Act Gothic guide included

BECOME A MEMBER

✦ PURCHASE

EPUB: $5.00
Print: $16.99

Published by Matatabi Press (Japan Publisher Registration No. 910554) · Distributed globally · Available Barnes & Noble (US), Waterstones (UK), Kinokuniya (Asia), Ernster (Luxembourg), Bokus (Sweden), Bol (Netherlands), Indigo Chapters (Canada), Thriftbooks, AbeBooks, Amazon (Worldwide), Goodreads, The NILE (academic), and independent bookshops worldwide.

✦ SUBMIT

Next window: Oct-Nov 2026
Then April-May, Oct-Nov 2027

Members submit free · Non-members: $3F

VIA SUBFOLIO

Submit to Black Fox Review

✧ What We're Looking For

Gothic is a genre in which the external world reflects an internal wound. The story is driven not by external plot alone, but by something within the protagonist that demands attention. This may be an obsession, a guilt, a repressed desire. It may be a longing, a grief, a hunger, a shame, a love that was not allowed, a truth that cannot be spoken, a promise that will not stay buried. The haunted house, the uncanny double, the ancestral curse. These are the outer shape of that inner truth. In gothic, character and the protagonist's character arc are the story itself.

The Black Fox Review editorial board welcomes submissions of gothic fiction that unsettle, haunt, and consume. We are particularly drawn to stories that:

Blend the historical and the supernatural
Explore guilt, memory, and unkept promises
Feature liminal spaces: thresholds, ruins, gardens at dusk
Treat the gothic not as decoration but as a way of seeing

✧ Quick Facts

Length: 500-3,000 words (see Summer 2026 Issue below: it's open access)
Format: .doc, .docx, or .pdf
Reading periods (2026): Oct-Nov (2026), Apr-May (2027), Oct-Nov (2027)
Response time: Within 8 weeks
Payment: Contributor's copy + $10 USD
Fees: Free for members · $3 for non-members

✧ Before you submit, please read our full guidelines ✧

SUBMISSION RULES →

The Black Fox Society

An annual membership for readers and writers who believe in the strange, the shadowed, and the true.

MEMBERS RECEIVE

Two interactive PDF issues annually (value $10)
Early Submission Access: Two weeks before the general public
Free submissions to all reading periods
Early access to each issue
Invitations to virtual readings
Immediate access: Three-Act Gothic guide with narratological analysis of the sample story

MEMBERSHIP FEE

$7 / year

(approximately ¥1,000 / €6.50)

JOIN THE SOCIETY

Black Fox Review - Summer 2026
Guilt, Memory, and Unkept Promises

(Available here from 14th August 2026)

Contents

Contributors
THE BLACK CAT Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
THE HUMAN CHAIR Edogawa Ranpo (1925)
Translation by Finlay Cameron
THE FOXES OF SPETCHLEY PARK John McLean
ON THE BATISTE KERCHIEF OF PANKA HUGYECZ
Adam Porkolab
DEAR ORPHEUS Athina Pia Barreda
THE PINE TREE Natalia Danjon
A WRITER’S GUIDE TO THE GOTHIC
Black Fox Review Editorial Board
I. Understanding Gothic Literature
II. Message: What Your Story is About
III. The Three-Act Gothic Structure
IV. Thematic Patterns in Gothic Shorts
V. Character in Gothic Fiction
VI. Character Ideas for a Gothic Short
VII. Voice, Tone, and Tempo
VIII. Motifs
IX. Conflict in Every Scene
X. Bring It All Together

Distributed globally · Available at Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Kinokuniya, Amazon, and select bookshops

edit@matatabi-japan.com · press@matatabi-japan.com

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